In U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,723, issued June 12, 1979 and U.S. application No. 005,749 filed Jan. 23, 1979 a novel concept for a sterile connector member is disclosed. The need for sterile connection arises in various fields, for example, in the area of blood banking. At the present time, when a unit of stored blood is taken from the blood bank and partially used, it is not possible to return the remaining portion of the blood back to storage, since the conventional connections which are made, although highly aseptic, constitute at least a technical breach of sterility. Accordingly, the blood cannot be reliably stored any longer without the danger of the growth of bacteria.
Numerous designs for means for accomplishing sterile connection have been proposed, including the idea of obtaining a connection to stored blood for withdrawing of part of the unit in such a manner that the remainder of the unit can be returned to storage for the remainder of its useful life.
The disclosures of the above cited patent applications represent potentially highly effective and successful means for sterile connection, in that opaque barrier membrane means within a sealed transparent housing is exposed to radiant energy to cause the barrier membrane means to fuse or melt, forming a hole in the membrane which establishes the connection. At the same time, if the barrier membrane is a high melting material, the sterility of the connection is assured, since the achievement of the melting point of the barrier membrane can assure the destruction of all bacteria present on the portions of the membrane that are non-sterile.
Particularly, a pair of housings, each carrying an opaque membrane, are brought together with the non-sterile faces of the opaque barrier membrane or walls being brought together into facing relationship. Then, when the opaque walls are exposed to radiant energy, they fuse together, preferably destroying the bacteria by the high melting point of the material, and also entrapping them by the melting process, since the non-sterile faces of the two membranes fuse together.